The telecommunications management network (“TMN”) provides a framework for achieving interconnectivity and communication across heterogeneous operating systems and telecommunications networks. TMN is defined in the International Telecommunications Union (“ITU”) Telecommunications Services Sector (“ITU-T”) M.3000 recommendation series (which are incorporated herein by reference). When telecommunications networks implement the TMN definitions, they become interoperable, even when interacting with the networks and equipment of other telecommunications service providers.
TMN uses object-oriented principles and standard interfaces to define communication between management entities in a network. TMN architecture and interfaces, defined in the ITU M.3000 recommendation series, build on existing open systems interconnection (“OSI”) standards (which are incorporated herein by reference). These standards include the Common Management Information Protocol (“CMIP”) which is a network monitoring and control standard which defines management services exchanged between peer entities. Other standards include the Guideline for Definition of Managed Objects (“GDMO”) which provides templates for classifying and describing managed resources, the Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (“ASN.1”) which provides syntax rules for data types, and the Open Systems Interconnect Reference Model which defines the seven-layer OSI reference model. (All of the preceding standards and protocols are incorporated herein by reference.)
Thus, TMN is based on the OSI management framework and uses an object-oriented approach, with managed information in network resources modeled as attributes in managed objects. Management functions are performed by operations comprised of Common Management Information Service (“CMIS”) primitives. A network's managed information, as well as the rules by which that information is presented and managed, is referred to as the Management Information Base (“MIB”). Processes that manage the information are called “management entities”. A management entity can take on one of two possible roles: “manager” or “agent”. Manager and agent processes send and receive requests and notifications using the CMIP.
A central concept to understanding the operation of TMN is found in the area of object-oriented systems. The OSI Management Information Structure (frequently referred to as the Structure of Managed Information (“SMI”)) is based on collections of objects, some defined in the ISO X.720 series of standards (which are incorporated herein by reference), others that can be found in the TMN M.3100 standards, along with application specific objects that describe the behaviour and offer control points for the specific managed systems. CMIP based MIBs are a collection of managed objects that contain attributes, exhibit some behaviours, can be created and deleted, and may optionally provide application specific actions that a manager can request. Each object can be viewed as possessing a certain set of behaviours, attributes, and actions. The behaviour of an object is directly related to the resource that it represents. For example, a termination point may exhibit the behaviours associated with its relationship with other system components. Attributes contained in an object describe the state and condition of the objects behaviour. Continuing with the termination point as an example, attributes can include references to other objects with which the termination point interacts such as a trail. Actions are services that the object can provide at the request of the management system. The templates for an object's behaviour are defined with GDMO and ASN.1 for TMN. As objects are identified by the management system agent or manager, objects are instantiated (another term for created). Each class of objects defined in the MIB can be instantiated as many times as the equipment and environment warrant.
Similar to CMIP, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (“CORBA”), which is incorporated herein by reference, is an open distributed object infrastructure defined by the Object Management Group (“OMG”). OMG is an industrial consortium that, among other things, oversees the development and evolution of CORBA standards and their related service standards through a formal adoption process. CORBA standardizes and automates many common network programming tasks such as object implementation, registration, and location transparency. CORBA also defines standard language mappings of most popular languages for the programming interfaces to services provided by the Object Request Broker (“ORB”). An ORB is the basic mechanism by which objects transparently make requests to and receive responses from other objects on the same machine or across a network.
Now, a modern communications network (e.g., an Internet Protocol (“IP”) based network) may include a number of network devices or nodes (e.g., routers) represented by managed objects. The network devices may be provided by a number of different manufacturers. In addition, the communications network may have a number of Network Management Systems (“NMS”) for configuring (and provisioning, controlling, monitoring, etc.) the network devices. For example, the communications network may have first and second NMSs for first and second groups of network devices provided by first and second manufacturers, respectively. In turn, each NMS may be configured by one or more Operations Support Systems (“OSS”). Typically, an OSS is operated by a telecommunications service provider such as a local telephone company. Each OSS may be CMIP based or CORBA based. In such a system, each NMS will typically have an interface (“OSSI”) for each protocol (i.e., CMIP, CORBA, etc.) used by its related OSSs.
The CMIP/CORBA OSSI is a standardized interface for use by network operators or service providers to provision the devices in their networks. The OSSI specifies the use of standardized object models to perform provisioning of corresponding network devices. However, one problem with such OSSIs is that they cannot be used to configure a new network device or node for which a standard object model has not yet been defined. This is problematic as the time required to reach agreement on and implement a standard object model using CMIP/CORBA can be significant. The delay in configuring such new network devices in turn causes a delay in the ongoing improvement of communications networks.
In particular, while a NMS may provide for custom or new node support by representing the new node with a single node type, different nodes have unique requirements and hence typically require unique handling mechanisms. For example, with respect to alarm support, different alarm agents may be required for each node type. To be implemented, these unique mechanisms often require changes in software code running on the NMS. These code changes can be costly and may adversely affect the reliability of the NMS, especially when they are first installed. While methods such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,950,935 to Allavarpu et al. and in United States Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0004942 by Madsen et al. involve the use of pluggable modules in network management systems, they are not directed toward storing configuration information for new network devices or nodes.
A need therefore exists for an improved method and system for storing configuration information for network nodes in a network management system. Accordingly, a solution that addresses, at least in part, the above and other shortcomings is desired.